Pontifex Optimus Maximus: The office of Pontifex Maximus from the Middle Republic to Caesar

The pontificatus maximus, one of Rome's main priesthoods, became an integral part of the emperor's authority during the Principate ap.d this is generally ascribed to the policies of Augustus. Yet it was in fact Julius Caesar who was responsible for many significant developments. Caesar had planned for the chief pontificate to play a key role in his own regime, along with the dictatorship, and it was only his assassination that prevented his ideas from being fully implemented. Caesar's key measures derived largely from his ancestry and the myths related to it, as these provided him with close links to key institutions at Rome. Augustus adapted and built on what Caesar had done and so Caesar had immense influence over the way the emperor's position was defined. All this had been made possible by the legacy left by previous pontifices maximi, whose great stature had endowed the priesthood with sufficient prestige and religious authority that it could be used as one of the foundation stones for one-man rule. The chief pontiff did not, however, have great individual power under the Republic and was not in charge of the public cult. Rather, the position was one among many that served to enforce tradition and regulate the ambitions of members of the elite in order to maintain consensus. It was only when Caesar combined the chief pontificate with supreme political power that the pontifex maximus effectively became the head of Roman religion.[Introduction